X3 Ray Trace

[Susan Jeffery]

Allen,
I prefer spotlights with the drop off rate expanded to 120 degrees. They don't produce that glowing orb on the ceiling.

Susan

[Pat1217]

Allen,
It looks like some of my materials are missing. The color of the walls, the bamboo window shade, the flooring....

Wonder why that happened?????

[Pat1217]

Keith and Susan,
I originally was going to use photon mapping but the time showed about 13 hours and if the estimate was over by half, it still would have been too long.

I know I'm not suppose to compare render engines but here's one I just did in Thea....15 min 25 sec on my laptop and it's about double the image size.

I used the same bump map on the floor and it came out fine but the one I did in Chief didn't match up with the diffuse material.

I used the same lights as in Chief, I just upped the intensity.

[sutcac]

Allen,
I prefer spotlights with the drop off rate expanded to 120 degrees. They don't produce that glowing orb on the ceiling.

Susan

Then why do all the can lights in Chief come default with point lights!!!???

[Allen Brown]

Pat, yes I did use your bump map: "Castel Wheat_Tumbled Marble 2 bump". Not sure why you got those errors.

Total time of this raytrace was 12:25:16. The first attachment is the raw raytrace, the second is after using the "Adjust Image Properties" tool.

[Allen Brown]

I still don't like the lighting. Not enough of it, and not placed correctly. Most of my light is comming from 2 light sources, which you can see shining on the ceiling.

Also, I can't figure out how to get the sun to shine directly in the window.

[Pat1217]

Allen,
It looks much better!! 12 hours?

I don't know why the bump map didn't work with mine. I tested it it a couple of times and it always gave me an offset. I redid the bump map again from the jpg I used and it still came out offset. Could it be my machine? I've noticed that I'm getting some odd flashing, streaking lines at start-up and I may need another mother board or video card.

[Pat1217]

Keith,

For us Chief users that are not as savvy as some of the render kings on this post ( you guys know who you are!!) can you please post some renders done by chief engineers so we can compare what X2 render did and compare it to x3?

Chad, You can look at some Sample Renders here ...http://www.chiefarchitect.com/products/samples.html

Of course, you're welcome to stick with Thea. If it works for you, that's all you need. However, it seems a bit premature to dismiss the quality of the new ray tracer. How long did you spend learning the ins and outs of Thea? How long have you spent with Chief X3?

Keith,
The quality is way better than PovRay and you all should be congratulated on such an improvement but when comparing not only the quality of the renders but the time it takes to get the quality, other render engines that are solely designed for only high end renders are better.

I looked at all the Sample Renders on Chief's website and I think I can make a fair assessment without having to spend hours learning it.

Chief Architect is an architectural tool while stand alone render engines are designed for rendering so it's not fair for me to expect the same outcome. You all did a great job with the improvement, really you did.

[Ron Ravenscroft]

Pat, yes I did use your bump map: "Castel Wheat_Tumbled Marble 2 bump". Not sure why you got those errors.

Total time of this raytrace was 12:25:16. The first attachment is the raw raytrace, the second is after using the "Adjust Image Properties" tool.

Very Bland lighting lacking big time.

[Allen Brown]

Very Bland lighting lacking big time.

I agree. I haven't got the interior lighting figured out yet.

[Doug Park]

One thing to keep in mind when looking at ray traces others have done is that the results obtained are often based on a desired look that you may not agree with.

[jonathank]

The X3 raytracer is way better than POV.

I can't wait to learn it, and hopefully in the future, render times will decrease...

[dgavin]

I guess it was the lighting that made the difference that I am referring to, along with the wall color. What settings, how long and how much ram? I have 4 gb but am thinking I need 8 gb.

[Chad Cardin]

Susan,

Thanks for doing the render comparisons. Thats exactly what I wanted to see is a side by side comparison of x2 vs x3 renders.

Could you tell me what the times were to do both the renders? Im curious since its the same plans and everyone is talking about different times, I would be interested in knowing just how long it would take to do the same exact project.

[Keith Jeffery]

Could you tell me what the times were to do both the renders?

I did the first two renders on my quad core i7. If I remember correctly, the POV render took about 18 hours; it was created for a presentation for the 2009 user group meeting.

The X3 ray trace of the same scene took almost exactly an hour.

The i7s are nice, by the way.

Just a little anecdote about the POV ray trace -- I was going to do a higher quality version for my talk. It was almost done, nearing 36 hours of render time, when the power went out.